1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for gaining the meat from the bodies of slaughtered poultry in the form of pieces, preferably in the form of fillets by mechanically detaching the meat pieces in successive operational steps starting in the vicinity of the breastbone (sternum), as well as to an apparatus for performing such process, the apparatus comprising a series of severing tools arranged in pairs for severing the meat from the breastbone and the ribs, and a driven conveyor with carriers, preferably in the form of saddles, which receive the poultry bodies, from which their extremities have been removed with the breastbone upwards and supporting on the inside thereof, and move them past the severing tools.
2. Prior Art
From German Utility Model 72 30 731 an apparatus is known, in which use is made of a conveyor with saddles for receiving the animal bodies to be processed in the abdominal cavity thereof. In this way each animal body is supplied to the processing operation for producing meat fillets, said product being obtained in that initially incisions are made in the plane of symmetry of the animal body by means of a pair of circular knives, starting from which incisions the fillets are scraped from the ribs surrounding the abdominal cavity by means of a pair of scrapers. This apparatus is used for processing fish.
An apparatus for gaining poultry breast meat adapted in accordance with the differences in the structure of the poultry body existing with respect thereto can be taken form EP-A No. 118 963. In this apparatus, the poultry bodies which have been freed from their extremities and which have been opened by removing the backbone are placed on saddles of a driven carrier disc in their abdominal cavity and are initially provided with incisions in the plane of symmetry of the body by means of a pair of circular knives, so as to detach the meat fillets from the crest of the breastbone. Starting from these incisions the fillets are then scraped partly from the ribs surrounding the abdominal cavity by means of pairs of scrapers and completely severed by means of a following pair of milling cutterlike rollers.
This procedure results in fillets with a very rough inner surface, which is looked upon as a quality-impairing feature, particularly when exhibiting fresh goods for sale.
3. Objects of the Invention
It is a main object of the present invention to obviate this deficiency and to subject the anatomical features obstructing the filleting process to a special processing before the fillets can be detached from the ribs. It is a further essential object of the invention to incorporate this special processing as a working step into the filleting process, so that poultry bodies prepared in the conventional manner can be processed.